


Breathlessness

by kathillards



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers R.P.M.
Genre: F/M, ranger romance theme challenge response, set post series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-04-24 09:04:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 12,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4913437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/pseuds/kathillards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm leaving tomorrow." / "I'll come visit you." ―- ScottTenaya, in the years after Venjix.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. story

**Author's Note:**

> since i finished writing strawberry avalanche, and i managed to track down the ranger romance theme challenge, i wanted to do an official set. i'm starting off with the 20 prompts of volume two for one of my favorite crackships starring my two favorite rpm characters.
> 
> all of these take place at various points in the years following danger and destiny, and unlike my last series, they are all interconnected and telling a semi-proper story, though they might jump around timeline-wise a little. if you get confused, let me know.
> 
> hope you enjoy, and i'd really love feedback, if you have a moment to spare!

She gets all the stories from Dillon, barely even having to ask about them before he’s telling her all about his team, things she already knew and things she didn’t.

Flynn, the Scottish mechanic with a heart of gold; Summer, who grew up rich and spoiled and engaged to be married but changed for the better; Ziggy, who got in trouble with the mafia for smuggling medical supplies to children in need; Gem and Gemma, kidnapped by Alphabet Soup and raised to make bombs; K, their mentor who was younger than them but smarter than anyone else in the world.

And Scott, of course, their fearless leader, who lost his brother in the Venjix attacks and spent every day afterwards fighting to try and make up for losing him. His story was one she hadn’t known when she’d been Tenaya 7, one he keeps close to his heart, even though everyone around them knows about Marcus Truman.

But she hadn’t. She might have guessed, might have seen it in the way he looks at her every now and then, his eyes dark like he’s blaming her for something – and she can’t even hate him for that, much as she wants to. Brainwashed or not, she was a part of an army that killed his brother. She can’t hate him for not forgiving her.

“He’s fine with you,” Dillon promises her. “They all are. Just, you know, don’t say anything… inappropriate.”

He probably should have clarified what he meant, because the next time she sees Scott, right before they’re about to leave for the wastelands and she could have probably forgotten about him for months, she says, “I’m sorry about your brother.”

Scott stops, stares at her, his hand stilling over the kitchen counter. She feels the first prickles of awkwardness as the moment stretches on. Finally, he says, “Did Dillon tell you?”

Tenaya shrugs. “He did, but he didn’t have to. I know you – ” Pauses, thinks about her words. “I know you associate me with… with that. With Venjix.”

He almost looks impressed. “Am I that obvious?”

“I don’t blame you,” she says, feeling the need to put it out there. “I would feel the same way, in your shoes. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t make up for – ”

“Tenaya,” he interrupts, his voice firm if amused, as he steps around the kitchen counter to face her without a barrier between them. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. You were brainwashed. It happens to the best of us.”

She drums her fingers on the countertop, and his eyes follow the movement. “I would hate me, if I were you.”

His gaze softens. “I don’t hate you.” He hesitates, licking his lips. A different feeling entirely spills through her body as she watches him. “You’re a good person, you know that?”

Tenaya rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to make me feel better. What happened to your family was terrible – ”

“Hey,” he says in what she knows is his best leader voice. “What happened to _your_ family was terrible, too.”

She looks down, her drumming fading away. “But I found my brother again.”

His breath escapes quietly through his teeth. “Oh,” he says. “That’s what this is about.”

There’s a moment of silence as they look at each other, neither one sure what to say next. The air feels charged, like a pin drop could cut through the tension. She blinks first, glancing away.

“I’m leaving tomorrow,” she says, for lack of anything else to add.

Scott’s face is indecipherable. “I know,” he says, then turns to leave, shooting her a smile over his shoulder. “I’ll come visit you.”


	2. guilt

He knows she feels guilty all the time, although he doesn’t think she deserves to. But it’s there, lingering behind her eyes, a shadow across her every action, the reason she’s so hesitant to touch any of them other than Dillon, even long after they’ve all accepted her into their group.

He sees it every time they bring up their fight, the battles against Venjix – and _her_ , implicitly included – and he sees it every time she comes home to rest from their restoration projects, whenever she steps out of the freedom of the new world and into the old comforts of the garage, still tainted with the blood she’s spilled.

She’s sitting at the counter this time when he comes home at some ungodly hour of the night, neither Summer nor Dillon anywhere near, a cup of coffee cooling down in her hands as she stares into its depths without drinking it. Scott rubs the sleep from his eyes, debating if it’s worth it to go and talk to her – he’s only there for a weekend, his usual meet-up with Ziggy and K to catch up and coordinate lesson plans or whatever, and he’s supposed to head back to work tomorrow.

But she has enhanced senses, and her shoulders straighten, so he knows she’s sensed him there. “Hey,” he says, a bit awkwardly, unsure what else to say. She doesn’t turn around, so he pads over the distance to the kitchen and stops on the other side of the counter so he can see her face.

She looks _wrecked_. Words drop out of his throat, spiraling down his stomach and dying with a quiet _thud_. He’s so used to being the leader, knowing how to talk to the others, he has no idea what to do when faced with her.

“Tenaya,” he finally manages to say when she doesn’t reply to his greeting, “is everything okay?”

“Peachy,” she says in a voice that is so startlingly like Dillon’s dryest tones, he has to blink at her. “Don’t worry about me, Scott. Go back to – back to sleep, or whatever you were doing.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” he says, which is true enough – he had been having a nightmare when he’d woken up. “You – you look terrible,” he adds honestly, because she does, and he’s pretty sure straightforward is the only way to talk to her.

“Thanks,” she mutters, and swirls her coffee around with a spoon. The silence grows awkward before he can think of anything else to say.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, unable to stand the heavy silence. She raises an eyebrow at him and he amends, “You look like you have a problem. You can talk to me, you know. I know I’m not Summer, but I can help – maybe.”

At Summer’s name, her eyes go guarded again. He winces, mentally kicking himself – of course it was either a problem with Summer or with Dillon, given they were the only two people she spent any decent amount of time with. For a moment, he thinks she’s just going to walk away and leave him standing there.

But she doesn’t. She says, her voice so quiet he has to strain to hear, “Summer told me about her butler.”

The pieces snap into place. Scott looks up and exhales slowly. “Tenaya – ”

“I know,” she interrupts. “I _know_ , it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t even _there_. But – ” She stops, frowning down at her coffee before saying, “I’m the only one left to take the blame.”

He doesn’t know how to fix that. She doesn’t seem to expect him to. She swirls her coffee around again. It feels like they’re locked in a cycle, trapped in stagnation. He doesn’t know how to break it.

Carefully, he reaches over and touches her hand. She jumps, just a little, but then relaxes when she sees he doesn’t mean harm, letting her fingers unfurl so he can take her hand properly and squeeze it.

It’s not much, and it probably doesn’t even matter in the grand scheme of things, but he thinks he sees her smile, sort of slowly, sort of sadly, but a smile, and maybe that matters.


	3. impression

“Truth,” she says when the bottle lands on her, meeting his gaze across the circle of their friends and smiling as he has to think about it for a second. Most of them are still not sure how to deal with her, even though they go out of their way to include her in their group activities.

Scott comes up with a question far faster than Ziggy, who was still moderately terrified of her, does, though. “What were your first impressions of all of us?”

Tenaya stares at him. “You mean… when I was evil and brainwashed and trying to kill you all?”

Impressively, he doesn’t waver. “Yes, that’s what I mean.” Dillon stifles a chuckle when she turns her glare on him.

“Fine,” she says, eyeing all of them thoughtfully before pointing at Ziggy. “Dumb. Helpfully dumb. _Hopelessly_ dumb.”

“Hey,” Ziggy complains as everyone laughs, but half-heartedly; he can’t exactly argue the point. “You _tricked_ me!”

She shrugs, smirking at him. “Like I said… dumb.” Moving her gaze to Gem and Gemma, who are sitting with Flynn in between them, she points at Gem and says, “Weird,” and then at Gemma, “and weirder.”

“Why was I weirder?” Gemma questions. Neither of them seem very upset by her assessment.

“Because you liked _him_ ,” Tenaya says, nodding at Flynn who stares at her in mock-affront. “And he’s _Scottish_.”

Everyone bursts into laughter again. Flynn throws a pillow at her, which she catches with ease. “I resemble that remark,” he says, sniffing, and she laughs, too, which makes him smile.

Shifting tracks to Summer, she says, “You were the yellow princess. Which, by the way, is an actual name people use for you around the city. I found that out when I went walking through in disguise to check things out.”

Summer blinks. “Wait, really? Why was I a _princess_?” Tenaya raises an eyebrow at her until she remembers. “Oh, right.”

Dillon chuckles, and she hits him in the arm. “I think it’s meant to be complimentary,” he teases. “You must have a lot of admirers around Corinth.”

Tenaya looks at her brother with a smirk. “And you chief among them, I’m sure,” she says, and he turns red. “What? You’re pretty much exclusively known as her boyfriend, even before you were dating. That, and _broody_.”

“Both of which are true,” Summer points out, smiling sweetly at him, and he makes a face at her. Tenaya looks over at Scott before the two of them can start making out in front of them.

“And you,” she says, pausing to think on it as he watches her in curious amusement, “you were… the leader.”

“That’s a cop-out,” he says immediately. “Come on, Tenaya, what did you _really_ think of me?”

“Honestly?” She leans back languidly, bracing her palms on the floor, and shoots him a smirk. “Everyone said you were the best fighter, but I always thought they were seeing things because you wore red. Your form was off half the time because you got distracted, or emotional, and you never did manage to beat me.”

He gapes at her for a moment as Ziggy murmurs, “ _Ooooh_ ,” under his breath and Dillon lets out a low whistle. Summer muffles her giggles in a pillow, but otherwise, it’s so quiet, she could hear a pin drop.

Finally, Scott says, “Is that a _challenge_?”

Tenaya grins at him. “Only if you’re up for it.”


	4. one moment

He doesn’t mean to look through the ajar door of his guest bedroom when she comes out of the bathroom inside, and to his credit, he does look away, but not before she spots him standing at the doorway, lingering awkwardly.

“Did you need something?” she asks, sounding amused as she adjusts the towel around her body and comes to face him properly. Scott swallows and doesn’t meet her eyes. “ _Relax_. You’re not gonna see anything.”

“I was just – ” He stops, clears his throat, and prays he won’t stammer on his words. “I was just going to give you Summer’s CD,” he manages to get out, waving the CD he’s holding at her. “For when you go back out, I mean.”

“Mm, right,” Tenaya says, taking the CD from his hands. Her fingers brush his for one moment, droplets of water jumping from her bare skin to his, and suddenly, all he can think about is the expanse of bare skin beneath the towel – _his_ towel, bright red to prove it, and _god_ , she’s standing _naked_ in his _house_ , and _how_ did he get himself into this situation?

“I’m sure Summer will appreciate it,” she says when he tunes back into her voice, and from the smirk on her face, she knows what he was thinking about. Scott feels heat rise to his cheeks. “Anything else?”

“No,” he chokes out. “I just – sorry – I didn’t know – I’ll be in the kitchen… uh, if you need me.”

“What, you don’t want to come in?” she asks teasingly, leaning against the door, the towel slipping just enough to give him a look down at – _no_. She’s _testing_ him, he’s sure of it. He yanks his gaze up to her eyes and wills his blush to cool down.

“Stop that,” he says, stepping back so he’s less tempted by the offer. “I’m not that kind of guy, Tenaya.”

She laughs, tossing the CD on the bed behind her. “Oh, I know. You’re the great red ranger, the strongest, bravest, most handsome fighter in the land,” she says, pretending to swoon. “You only do nice things, like let your homeless friends take showers in your apartment when they come home all dirty from the wastelands.”

She’s making fun of him, but the words are genuine. Scott smiles before he can help himself, then realizes –

“You think I’m handsome?”

Tenaya rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “I’ll see you at lunch, Scott,” she says over her shoulder and he grins and ducks his head. When he looks up, the door still hasn’t closed and she’s not looking at him when she drops her towel and reaches for her jeans on the bed.

He doesn’t look. Much, anyway. Dillon would punch him if he found out, no matter _how_ pretty Tenaya is. Or how good she looks in just his towel and nothing else. Or nothing entirely.

Yeah, he’s definitely getting punched.


	5. match

For all that she ribs him, Scott is a very competent fighter, and he knows it. The day they finally get to have their duel of honor, as Ziggy refers to it, or the promised sparring match, as everyone else refers to it, she honestly thinks she might lose at several different points. But she doesn’t tire easily, and neither does he, and she can certainly hold her own.

After an hour of watching them fight, everyone else gets bored and leaves them alone. She hears Flynn muttering something about, “Never gonna get my money at this rate,” and Summer elbows him to shut him up.

When everyone’s gone, they finally allow themselves to take a break for water. Tenaya watches him gulp down from his water bottle, gratified to note the sweat trickling down his forehead and arms, as she stretches out her legs. He eyes her thoughtfully over his bottle, like he’s impressed by her. She tries not to look too pleased.

“You’re good,” he admits once they both catch their breaths. “But nobody’s won yet.”

“Guess we gotta keep going,” she sighs, as if this is all terribly boring, and he grins at her before setting his water bottle down and taking off his shirt. She blinks. “What are you – ”

Scott shrugs, though she can see a smirk at his lips when he catches her looking. “It was getting really hot.”

Tenaya narrows her eyes at him. “Whatever.” She’s not _that_ easily distracted. “Ready?” Before he can answer, she charges at him with a roundhouse kick, which he dodges and throws a punch at her, and they’re back in the ring as if they’d never even left. Only there is considerably more skin and abs on display now, but _whatever_.

She ends up knocking him to the ground and pinning him there through some combination of robotic reflexes and sheer dumb luck. He looks as surprised as she feels, too caught off guard to even protest as she settles down on top of him and holds his wrists above his head to claim her victory.

“Wow, look at that,” she says lightly, clamping her knees on either side of his hips to stop him from struggling. “The mighty red ranger, and all it took to beat him was a teenage girl.”

Scott rolls his eyes at her, but there’s an amused smile on his face anyway. “Pity you couldn’t have done it while you were evil,” he remarks dryly, finally going still. “Fine, you win. I guess Dillon gets his money. Are you gonna get off me now?”

She tilts her head, pretending to think about, and shifts her body around to get more comfortable on his stomach. He makes a noise that could be discomfort or – well, the opposite, and she kind of thinks it’s that judging by what she can feel underneath her. Her mouth twists into a smirk as she watches him try to pretend he’s not enjoying this.

“Do you want me to?” she asks, and his eyes widen at the suggestion in her tone. He swallows, and she tracks the movement of down the line of his throat, still glistening with sweat. Almost of its own accord, her head begins to tip forward –

“Oh, are you guys done?” comes a cheery voice behind them, and she startles, jumping backwards off of him and landing hard on the floor. Scott still doesn’t manage to get up, his breath coming hard and fast as his chest rises and falls. Tenaya tries not to watch, turning her gaze away with some effort to Summer standing at the doorway.

“I won,” she says, clambering to her feet. She considers giving him a hand up, but he’s already getting up, and she doesn’t really think he’d take it. “Did you get any money?”

Summer grins, shaking her head. “Nah, I didn’t bet. Dillon’ll use his money to take me on a date, anyway. Flynn is gonna be _so_ disappointed, though,” she adds with a pointed look at Scott, who grins sheepishly.

“What can I say?” he says, standing up and stretching. Tenaya glances back from the doorway, almost about to leave, but he catches her eye and grins. “She got the better of me.”

Summer raises an eyebrow at her, and Tenaya shrugs, unable to stop her smile. “The bigger they are…” she says lightly, swinging her water bottle around, and he laughs, “…the harder they fall.”


	6. truth

“All right,” Summer says decidedly, facing him across the campfire with Dillon at her side, “we need to talk about this.”

Scott blinks at her over his marshmallow stick. “Talk about what?” he asks, feeling like he’s about to start regretting visiting them out in the wastelands, especially when Summer and Dillon exchange that _look_.

“You… and my sister,” Dillon says casually, leaning back on his hands and smirking at him. Scott chokes on thin air. “And you _liking_ my sister.” It becomes incredibly obvious why they sent Tenaya back home to get supplies tonight. “Right?”

It takes him a moment to remember how to formulate words. “Um, _no_ ,” he says, but Summer raises an eyebrow, and it’s _so hard_ to lie to her. “I mean – I just – I don’t _know_ , okay, this is ridiculous – we are _barely_ friends – ”

“I wouldn’t call letting her sleep in your bed _barely_ friends,” Summer interrupts. Dillon’s head shoots up, and Scott winces. “Sorry,” she mutters with a grin that doesn’t seem very apologetic at all. “Relax, Dillon. I saw them, nothing happened.”

“She had a nightmare,” Scott agrees quickly, trying very hard not to think about Tenaya in his shirt, because her night clothes were in the laundry, standing at his bedroom door, asking quietly if she could sleep in his bed for company tonight, or Tenaya lying next to him in bed, their bodies touching at every point from their shoulders to their legs, or the morning when he woke up to see her head on his chest, barely even noticing Summer at the door –

Dillon narrows his eyes at him. Scott shifts around uncomfortably. “I was just being nice,” he insists. “She’s – she’s your sister! That means she’s part of our team. I would do the same for – ” He glances at Summer, then away quickly, “— Gemma?”

“Of course you would,” Dillon drawls, sounding entirely unconvinced. “Fine, whatever. Look, if it’s me you’re worried about, you shouldn’t be. You’re my best friend. I’m not going to hurt you for having feelings for her.”

“I _don’t_ have feelings for her,” he says, but Dillon ignores him with practiced ease.

“I’ll only have to hurt you if you hurt _her_ , and you won’t, right?”

“No,” Scott says automatically, then glares. “Stop that. Of course I won’t hurt her, but I also _don’t like her like that_.”

“We’re not in high school, Scott,” Summer laughs. “It’s okay to have a crush.”

“I don’t think about her that way!” he says, and immediately regrets it when they trade that look again. He’s sort of starting to hate the fact that they’re a couple now.

“Then what way _do_ you think about her?” Dillon asks him, grinning. Scott glowers at him, but he doesn’t budge.

“Shut up. I’m trying to be her _friend_ , okay? You know she needs that more than a boyfriend right now.”

“So… you _have_ thought about being her boyfriend?” Summer asks innocently. Scott debates throwing his marshmallows at her, but she’d probably just feed them to Dillon, which, _gross_.

“If I say yes, will you both shut up? Forever?”

Dillon chuckles, sitting up straight and settling his arm around Summer’s shoulders. “As long as it’s the truth,” he says in clear amusement as Scott sighs heavily.

“Fine. _Fine_. You’re right. Sort of. She’s pretty, that’s all. Stop looking at me like that,” he adds in Summer’s general direction. “I know what you’re thinking. Do _not_ try and set us up.”

She holds up her hands, giggling. “All right. I think tonight has been very productive, though, don’t you, honey?”

Dillon hates pet names, Scott knows that for a _fact_ , but he still grins down at Summer and says, “Oh, absolutely, darling,” and this time, he actually does throw his marshmallows at both of them.


	7. triumph

The night after their victory party, she ends up on a park bench in the middle of Corinth, watching the fake stars of the dome twinkle and shine as the lights of the city turn off for the day, houses going dark one by one. She’s surprised that he’s the one who tracks her down instead of her brother, but she doesn’t say anything when he sits down besides her on the bench.

“Did Dillon send you?” she asks after a moment of silence when it becomes clear he’s content to just sit there and let her brood in peace. His presence is comforting, but itches at her, like she should be saying something instead of staying quiet.

“Yeah,” he admits, and she appreciates that he doesn’t try to bullshit her. “He thought I could help. Are you cold?”

Tenaya glances down at her outfit. It had been warmer when she’d left the party, so she hadn’t brought her jacket with her. “No,” she lies, but she knows he can see her shivering. “Why did he think you could help?”

“Well,” Scott says with a slight smile as he removes his own jacket, “because I used to help him, when he got in funks like this. Summer says the two of you are a lot alike.”

She jumps when he slides the jacket around her shoulders – it’s a little big for her, but it’s warm and covers up her arms from the goosebumps brought forth by the cold. She doesn’t say thank you. “How would Summer know?”

Scott chuckles. “Good question. Summer is a pretty good judge of people, actually.” He drapes an arm across the back of the park bench, not brushing her shoulders, but close enough that she can sense the warmth of his bare skin.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asks, eyeing his uncovered arms. He shrugs, which she thinks is boy code for _yes, but I’m not going to admit it_. “You don’t have to be so chivalrous around me, you know.”

He raises an eyebrow, looking amused. “Is that what you think this is? Chivalry? Not… I don’t know, friendliness?”

Tenaya frowns and looks back up at the sky. “Whatever. I don’t want you to be nice to me out of pity.”

“I’m not,” he says, but she doesn’t reply, so he slides his hand down her back, making her straighten up out of instinct. “ _Tenaya_ , would you look at me?”

“Your fake sky is a nicer view,” she says dryly, and she thinks she hears his breath come out in a quiet laugh.

“Ouch,” he mutters, but when she glances sidelong at him, he’s grinning. “Look, I know you’ve been through a lot. But you have a family now. You have a brother, and you have a team. You don’t have to be alone all the time.”

“But I am!” she bursts out, then instantly drops her voice, kicking herself for the display of emotion. He doesn’t seem annoyed at all, though. “I mean – you guys… you’ve known each other for ages. You love each other. I’m just the brainwashed little sister who tried to kill you all. Multiple times. For a _year_.”

“We – ” For a moment, she thinks he’s going to say something stupid like _‘We love you’_ , but he switches tracks. “Dillon loves you,” which, at least, is true. “That’s enough for all of us.”

She sighs, leaning back into his touch without realizing it. He hesitates for a moment, and she almost pulls away, but then he lets his arm settle around her shoulders. It’s steady, solid and warm. She can see why Dillon sent him.

“You’re a good leader, Scott,” she says after a long few moments, getting to her feet. “Congratulations.”

He stands up, too, looking confused. “On what?”

Tenaya spreads her arms around, gesturing to the city at peace. “On your triumph. Beating Venjix. Saving the world. Saving _me_.” There’s more, but she doesn’t say it. She thinks he understands because he smiles.

“Let’s head back,” he says instead of anything else, which she appreciates, too. He doesn’t try to touch her again, but if his arm brushes hers, she lets it. He’s warm, and she needs some warmth tonight.


	8. change

His first inkling that things are starting to change is when he swings by the garage to pick up some files and she’s there – with a boy. A boy he doesn’t _recognize_. They’re sitting on the couch, talking and laughing, and oh, right, Summer’s there, too, and Dillon is wandering around the kitchen somewhere, but – _but_.

“New friend?” he asks, coming up behind Summer, trying not to stare too much at Tenaya and the boy. Summer looks over at him and smiles in greeting.

“Nice to see you, too,” she jokes, and he nudges her, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, we met him out in the ruins of Omega City. He hid out there and managed to survive the attacks, along with a couple other kids. We brought them all back here. I think Tenaya’s taken a real liking to him.”

Annoyance flares up inside him, but he stamps it down quickly. “What’s his name?” he asks, keeping his voice light.

Summer looks at him with an amused smile like she knows exactly what he’s thinking – and she probably does. “His name is Aiden, and you are _going to be nice to him_.”

Scott scoffs. “When am I not nice?” he asks, and she snorts before shoving him over in their general direction. He stumbles, shooting her an annoyed look over his shoulder, before turning back as Tenaya finally notices him.

“Oh, hey, Scott,” she greets, far more cheerful than she normally is when she comes home from the wastelands. “Um, this is Aiden. Aiden, this is – ”

“RPM red ranger, yeah, I know,” Aiden says with a grin, offering his hand to shake. “It’s so cool to finally meet you. I watched you on TV whenever I could find a working one out in the city.”

“Oh,” Scott says, nonplussed. “Uh, thank you. It’s – great to meet you, too. You’re a refugee from Omega, I hear?”

He nods, smiling at Tenaya. “She found me in the underground subway system. We’d been hiding out there for months. Nobody had ever come across us before, but I guess she has super senses or something.”

“Or something,” Scott agrees dryly, shooting Tenaya a look. She makes a face at him. “Well, I should get going, I just came here to pick up some things. See you around, Tenaya. Aiden.”

He gets the feeling Summer is laughing at him as he leaves the room, but he doesn’t bother to look back. The most annoying thing is how _nice_ Aiden is. And how _smitten_ he clearly is with Tenaya. By the time he returns to the living room, they’re both gone and Dillon has joined Summer on the couch.

“Did you like Aiden?” she asks brightly. Scott tries not to make his smile seem too forced, but she notices anyway. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she laughs, nudging Dillon. “I think _somebody’s_ jealous.”

“I am _not_ ,” he says, but gets cut off by Dillon laughing.

“Yeah, you have reason to be,” he says nonchalantly. “I think they’re out at a café right now. On a _date_.”

Scott stares at him, feeling his stomach turn inside out. “On a – and you’re _okay_ with this?”

Dillon shrugs. “Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, it’s been a year and _you_ haven’t asked her out. The boy is nice. I think she deserves it.”

“I wasn’t _planning_ on asking her out,” Scott mutters, stalking out to the doorway. “And I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work!”

“Maybe you should change that,” Summer suggests, giggling, and her words sit oddly in his mind the whole drive back to his apartment, ringing with images of Tenaya and Aiden and a million reasons why he should have asked her out in the past year alone.


	9. moonlight

She hates parties. Corinth throws a lot of parties now that Venjix is defeated and the rich and elite can dance to their heart’s content without fearing for their lives and she _hates_ parties. Summer makes her go to a few, just so she can assimilate better into the lifestyle, and she hates the fancy dresses, the tiny food, the stupid music, and most of all, the people.

But Scott looks really good in a suit, so she almost doesn’t mind when he tracks her down on the balcony of – a ballrom or something, she doesn’t even _know_ where they are. Why the fuck does Corinth have a _ballroom_ anyway?

She voices this thought out loud and he chuckles, leaning over the railing at her side. “I don’t know. To make it feel more like home, I guess. Wherever that is.”

She scoffs, her breath coming out foggy in the chilly night air. “I cannot believe Summer talked me into this.”

“Summer can talk anyone into anything, don’t feel too bad,” he says cheerfully, nudging her shoulder. “Besides, you gotta admit, seeing my father sing karaoke was totally worth it.”

A smile twitches at her lips. “Maybe a little. But it doesn’t make up for the dumb food. What’s _caviar_ , anyway? And – ” She looks down with a frown at her dress, dark purple and poofy. “I _hate_ these dresses.”

When she glances up, he is _definitely_ not looking at her neckline where it ends far too low on her chest. She finds herself battling a grin anyway.

“Caviar sucks,” he admits. “But you look good. Purple is a nice color on you.”

“You know what’s a nice color on me?” she asks, and doesn’t wait for him to answer. “Black. She _never_ lets me wear black for these things. Other girls wear black dresses!”

“To funerals, yeah,” Scott says, amused. “Or to nightclubs. But those are – generally, a bit shorter.”

Tenaya raises her eyebrows. “I have short black dresses,” she says, and he coughs. “If you took me to a nightclub – ”

“No,” he says quickly, turning his attention back to the moonlight streaming over the city below them. “You’re eighteen, that’s not old enough. And Dillon would kill me.”

“The world ended! Why do we still have age limits on going to clubs?”

Scott chuckles. “Beats me. But I _am_ the general’s son. Can’t be seen breaking any rules, you know.”

She tilts her head, surveying him until he shifts under the pressure of her gaze. “Is that the only reason?”

“Yes,” he mutters, ducking his head, then glances sidelong at her, too quickly. “How’s your boyfriend, by the way?”

Very casual. Tenaya rolls her eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she says insistently. He looks entirely unconvinced. “He’s _not_. We just – you know – hang out. Sometimes.”

“Yes, sometimes,” Scott agrees dryly. “Alone, in your car, without your clothes?”

“Shut up,” she grumbles, hitting his shoulder with hers, but there’s a laugh in her voice despite herself. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”

Scott half-grins, looking away from her. “Good thing you do know better,” he murmurs, his voice soft, and there’s a moment where the atmosphere is charged with electricity, and she almost – _almost_ – forgets herself and reaches up to brush his hair out of his face, to touch his cheeks, to kiss him – but she doesn’t.

He doesn’t either. She supposes it’s because she has a boyfriend.


	10. perception

He’s not entirely sure why he ends up at Flynn’s shop the day he catches Tenaya and Aiden making out for the third time, but he does, and Flynn seems happy to see him, so he stays. Ziggy is there, too, on his day off from the school, and Scott thinks maybe it’s because his subconscious had thought it’d be easier to talk to them about it rather than Summer and Dillon.

“What’s wrong with Summer and Dillon?” Ziggy asks when he voices this thought out loud, the two of them sitting in chairs around Flynn’s desk while he works on fixing up some car part. “I mean, aside from the obvious gross couple stuff.”

“Oi, you can’t talk about gross couple stuff,” Flynn says, pointing a screwdriver at him. “I get to be around you and K the most, y’know. Summer and Dillon are actually more bearable.”

Ziggy flushes, but fires back, “Oh, like you and Gemma are so much better?”

“Okay!” Scott interrupts before they can start debating the topic. It all feels rather Machiavellian. “I get it. We’re all in gross couple relationships except for me.”

Ziggy thinks about it for a moment, then says, “Well, there’s always Gem.”

Flynn makes a face. “I think Gem is in _my_ relationship,” and the three of them laugh about it for a moment before he turns to Scott, serious again. “Mate, I think you should just tell her.”

“Tell her what?” Scott asks slowly, narrowing his eyes. Flynn seems to get the message of _be careful what you say_ , because he looks wildly at Ziggy for help.

“Man, just tell her you like her,” Ziggy says, patting his arm. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Scott stares at him. “She’s. Dating. Someone. Else.” Ziggy goes silent in consideration of this point.

“Well,” Flynn says, “that’s only because _you_ didn’t ask her out, and you had a year to do it. Who can blame her?”

Scott groans and drops his head on the table. “I didn’t _know_ I liked her,” he mutters. “Besides – how do you even know she’d have said yes to me?”

“You’re Scott Truman, who wouldn’t say yes to you?” Ziggy asks cheerfully.

Scott thinks about Summer and doesn’t answer. He looks at Flynn and gets the feeling he’s thinking about Summer, too. Thankfully, Flynn doesn’t say anything, just smiles at him sympathetically.

“Hey, you’ll never know unless ya ask her,” he says, shrugging. “I asked Gemma. Well, she asked me, but same thing.”

“I can’t ask her _now_ ,” Scott sighs. “I just – I just need to get over her. I mean, over this. It’s just – it’s just a crush, right?”

“Sure,” Ziggy says in a tone of voice that indicates the opposite. Scott glares at him.

“ _Listen_ ,” Flynn says calmly, bringing his attention back to him. “Even if it’s just a crush – don’t you think you owe it to her to tell her? You have _feelings_ for her. That’s not _nothing_.”

“I – ” Scott’s mouth doesn’t work properly for a moment. The thought of admitting his feelings to Tenaya is singularly terrifying, and not even just because she spent a year trying to kill him.

“When did you get so smart?” Ziggy asks, impressed.

Flynn grins and taps his head. “Summer’s a good influence. She always says to be perceptive and notice when something’s wrong and then try to fix it. And you, my friend, need fixing. Wanna go to the bar later?”

“That sounds nice,” Scott admits, slumping back in his chair. “That sounds _really_ nice.”


	11. lost

She ends up wandering Corinth alone one night, having driven back to the city without Summer and Dillon, and it’s raining, of all the times for their stupid fake rain for their fake plants. She has her coat on, but it’s still cold and windy, and she bumps into someone when the rains get too much to look where she’s going.

“Are you okay?” asks a concerned voice, and she looks up into Gem’s face, wondering what are the goddamn odds she’d end up running into an RPM ranger while lost in Corinth. “Tenaya?” he asks in surprise.

She’s surprised Gemma isn’t there, but she doesn’t bother to question it. “Hi, Gem,” she sighs, brushing soaking wet strands of her off her face. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

He keeps his hands on her arms anyway, refusing to let her run off. Sometimes, she really hates those damn ranger genes. “I think you need help,” he says, surveying her uncertainly. “Do you want me to take you back to the garage?”

“No,” she says forcefully, and pulls herself away. “I’m fine, I swear. Just – I’ll be fine. Don’t call my brother, okay?”

She walks off quickly, kicking at puddles as she goes, but his voice stops her before she gets too far. “Can I take you somewhere else? Not the garage?”

He catches up to her when she pauses to think about it. “I promise, not your brother. Just somewhere warm.”

Tenaya swallows. “Fine,” she says. “Just – I don’t want to talk, okay?”

“I know,” he says with a soft smile. She wonders if he’s thinking about Dillon. “Come on. I know where to take you.”

And that’s how she ends up at Scott’s doorstep, dripping wet and shivering from the cold, with Gem behind her, cheerful as always as he tells Scott, “And then I found her out in the rain, so I took her here because you have a fireplace!”

Tenaya wraps her coat tighter around herself and doesn’t look at him as he invites her inside with an amused smile. “You wanna come in, Gem?” he asks, but Gem must have said no, because she she glances back, he’s gone and Scott is leaning against the closed door, watching her getting his floor wet.

“Do you need a towel?” he asks, because he knows she doesn’t care to be given things she didn’t ask for, and she tries to stop her teeth chattering before she nods. He heads to a cupboard in the hallway and pulls out a clean towel for her. “Wanna tell me what you were doing out there?”

“Not really,” she says, taking off her coat and discarding it on the kitchen table. Scott clears his throat and looks away when she reaches for her shirt. “I hope you don’t mind,” she adds as an afterthought, and he coughs, shaking his head, so she strips off the shirt and her jeans, leaving her in only underwear. He continues not looking at her.

“All right, well, I’ll go heat up some soup for you,” he says, and she’s pretty sure she catches him glancing at her very quickly before she brings the towel around her body to dry herself off. “You should go sit by the fireplace, warm yourself up.”

She brushes past him, murmuring, “I think it’s already pretty hot in here,” and is rewarded by his cheeks flushing red.

When he brings the soup out to the couch by his fireplace, she finds herself blurting out, “I had a fight with Dillon.”

He doesn’t look surprised as he sits down next to her. “I figured. Wanna talk about it?”

Tenaya shakes her head, looking down at the soup. It smells delicious. “No,” she says. “I – I just wanted to be alone.”

“You can be alone, if you want,” he says, but she shakes her head again, because now that he’s here, she doesn’t really want him to leave. “Want me to stay?”

“Yes,” she murmurs, and he smiles at her, and he stays.


	12. call

He wakes up and regrets that decision immediately. His head is pounding, his limbs are tangled in his sheets, and he has almost zero memory of the night before, at least after agreeing to go to the bar with Flynn and Ziggy.

 _Shit_ – he went to the _bar_. He sits up, glancing around wildly, then down at himself before relaxing. He has his clothes, and nobody else’s are in the room, which means he managed to avoid _that_ particular drunken mistake. Still, he can’t shake the feeling that he did something he’s going to regret when he remembers it.

He reaches for his cell phone and dials Flynn first, who picks up with a cheery, “Hello?” and Scott rolls his eyes. Of _course_ Flynn isn’t hungover. Flynn has somehow miraculously avoided hangovers every single time they go drinking together.

“How the fuck are you not hungover?” he demands, and he can practically see Flynn grinning over the phone.

“Old Scottish hangover cure,” he says brightly. “I can bring some over if you need it. It does taste like frog feet, though.”

Scott makes a face. “No, thank you. How do you know what frog feet – never mind. What did we do last night?”

“What did we do? We went to the bar and got ragingly drunk, what else would we do? You didn’t take anyone home with you, did you?” Flynn asks in concern and Scott sighs. “I’m pretty sure we all got home safely. Even Ziggy.”

“Okay,” Scott says slowly. “Good. That’s – good. I’ll call him later. Bye.” He hangs up the phone and stares down at it, a memory itching at his mind that he can’t unlock yet. As he stares at it, the phone starts ringing, the name _Tenaya_ flashing across.

He swallows. That can’t be good. He presses _answer_ on the call carefully and says, “Hi.”

“Scott?” she asks, a note of amusement in her voice. “Are you hungover?”

“….No?” he tries, and she laughs. The sound makes his heart jump, which immediately reminds him _why_ he had gone out drinking at a bar anyway. Fuck. “Uh, is there a reason you’re calling me?”

“Yeah,” she says, drawing the word out. “Do you not remember calling me last night?”

 _Fuck_. “I… don’t really remember anything from last night. Why did I call you?”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Tenaya says, in a voice he knows she’s keeping deliberately light. “Just, you know, to confess your undying love for me. No big deal, really.”

Scott chokes. “I – _what_? Are you – are you joking?”

“Do you wanna hear it?” she asks, and he listens to her press some buttons with a sinking feeling in his stomach. His own voice comes over the call: _Hey, Tenaya – Tenaya. Hi. It’s me. Scott. I mean, I’m Scott. It’s me, I just – I wanted to tell you – I really wanted – I wanted – to kiss you. To kiss – and I don’t like that guy – and – and I love you. Ziggy, shut up, I’m talking to Tenaya. Yes, Tenaya. Yes, I’m telling her – don’t do that – okay, I have to go take care of that. Bye._

He sits down on his bed, closing his eyes and wishing he could disappear. “I – Tenaya, I – I was _really_ drunk – ”

“Oh, don’t worry, I could tell,” she says, but it’s pretty clear she’s nervous beneath the teasing, too. His stomach flips upside down. He feels like he might throw up. Actually – that’s probably the hangover. “I figured I should let you know.”

“Yeah,” he says faintly. “Thanks – for that. I – I gotta – um. Goodbye?”

She laughs, but it sounds kind of wistful. “See you later,” she says, and then she hangs up, leaving him staring down at the phone in his hands and halfway wishing he had the nerve to call her back when sober.


	13. step

“So,” Dillon says with a grin when she joins him and Summer at the campsite that morning, “he told you he was in love with you, huh?”

Tenaya sighs and debates her escape options for a second before replying, “Shut up. Did you tell him that?” she demands of Summer, who holds her hands up quickly.

“I would never,” she says, and Tenaya frowns at her until she relents with a giggle, “Flynn called, actually.”

“I hate your fucking ranger gossip mill,” Tenaya grumbles, sitting down next to them and setting up their radio stations to search for any signs of life in the area. “Is there anything you guys don’t know about each other?”

“Hey, that’s not fair, we’ve all known Scott’s been in love with you for, like, months, now,” Dillon says lightly.

Tenaya throws a rock at him. He catches it without even blinking. “He has _not_ ,” she says, even though she’s listened to the voicemail of him telling her he loves her at least five times since she woke up. “You’re delusional.”

“You heard the words come out of his mouth!” Dillon protests, laughing. “How long are you guys gonna do that _just friends_ thing? It’s getting old. Haven’t you seen him naked already?”

She turns red. “ _Shirtless_. Maybe _you’ve_ seen him naked,” she snarks, but he doesn’t bother to disagree. “Whatever, it’s not a big deal. He was drunk. I have a –  boyfriend. Or something. It’s not important.”

“Oh, yeah, I bet that boyfriend will last real long now that you know you have _Scott Truman_ in love with you,” Dillon says with a snort before getting to his feet. “Summer?”

Summer, who’s been watching her quietly with a smile, nods. “I got this,” she says, and waits for him to leave before moving closer to Tenaya, who shifts away from her on instinct. “Tenaya, you should really talk to him about this.”

“I called him,” she says defensively. “We talked. It’s over. Move on.”

Summer inhales, exhales, then says, “I’ve kissed him, you know.”

 _That_ gets her attention. She looks over at her sharply. “Explain.”

“We had just entered the ranger program,” Summer says, leaning back on her hands. It’s a Dillon move; Tenaya recognizes it. It’s weird to think of Summer as _not_ one-half of Summer-and-Dillon at this point. “He was nice, and charming, and funny. I had saved his life, so… I don’t know. Things happened. We decided a relationship would jeopardize the mission, so we didn’t take it any further. And then…”

“Then you met Dillon,” Tenaya finishes softly, staring off into the horizon. The idea that Scott and Summer had once been – _something_ sits oddly inside her. Like it doesn’t make sense. Summer loves Dillon. Tenaya’s known that forever.

“Then I met Dillon,” Summer agrees, and when Tenaya looks at her, she’s smiling. “What I’m saying is, Scott and I weren’t right for each other. But I know what he’s like when he likes a girl, and he likes you. He likes you a lot.”

Tenaya frowns. “Just because you got Dillon doesn’t mean Scott and I – ” She stops, sighs, and puts her head in her hands. “And _Aiden_. God. This is stupid.”

“Feelings are stupid, yeah,” Summer agrees, squeezing her shoulder. “Like I said, you should talk to him about it. Face to face. It might help you figure it out. Take another step – the next step.”

“What if he doesn’t want to?” she asks quietly.

Summer chuckles. “With you? He wants to. Trust me.” And for a moment, Tenaya does.


	14. wish

Ziggy, of all people, thinks of it first, when they’re all gathered together for their biweekly meet-ups. “Do you guys know when your birthdays are?”

Dillon and Tenaya, sitting on opposite couches in the garage, look at each other for a moment. Dillon says, “Well, given that all our memories were erased by an evil robot intent on destroyed the world… I’d say no.”

Tenaya says, “You seem like a Scorpio to me,” and he throws his popcorn at her.

Which is how they all end up coordinating a massive joint birthday party for the two of them, despite both of them protesting it. Dillon eventually goes along with it because Summer makes him; Scott notices Tenaya never really warms up to the idea, but she lets them do it because she’s gotten better about the whole being part of a team thing, and it makes them happy.

He gets put in charge of cake, and she insists on going with him because she doesn’t trust anyone with cake – “There are only four good flavors, maybe five depending on the baker, and with my luck, you’ll bring home the sixth.” – and he lets her because none of the others will let either of them help with the planning, and he knows it’s annoying her.

“Does it really bother you, getting a birthday party?” he asks her on the drive over to the bakery, changing the radio station casually from the angry and vaguely feminist pop punk music she’d set it to when she’d gotten in.

Tenaya shrugs. “No, not the birthday party. I mean – it’s nice that you guys – I don’t know. It just feels like being reminded… that I had parents? Before Venjix? And I can’t remember them at all.”

Scott slows down as he pulls into the parking lot, feeling guilty even though the birthday party wasn’t his idea. “I’m sorry,” he begins to say, but he’s barely gotten the words out before she’s shaking her head and unbuckling her seat belt.

“Don’t apologize,” she says, opening her car door. “It’s not your fault. I know you guys are trying to do something nice.”

He sighs, getting out of the car and locking it behind them as they walk to the bakery. “What did Dillon say?”

She rolls her eyes. “After Summer got him alone? Not much,” she says with a smirk, and Scott laughs. Summer and Dillon are not half as subtle as they think they are.

“You know, if you don’t want a cake or the whole shebang, nobody would force you,” he tells her honestly as they head over to the bakery counter to examine the cake options. “It’s not like the two of you would have the same birthday anyway.”

Tenaya glances at him quickly, then back down at the cakes. “It’s fine. I don’t mind getting gifts.” She runs her teeth over her bottom lip – it’s a habit of hers he’s trying to stop noticing – and points at a chocolate cake in the display. “That one.”

“Does Dillon like chocolate?” he asks, leaning over to see the cake she’s pointing at. Her arm brushes his in the process; even though they’re both wearing jackets, the touch makes him swallow.

“Everyone likes chocolate,” she says in her _you’re-being-stupid_ voice. “Even robots.”

Scott fights a smile and gestures over the cashier to order the cake. “Whatever you want,” he says, and he thinks he catches her looking at him in a way that makes it hard to breathe all of a sudden. “Do you have a wish ready to go?”

She does that thing with her teeth again; he wishes she would stop because he needs to be able to stop staring at her. “What do you usually wish for?”

He shrugs, glancing away from her. “Morbid things, usually.” He doesn’t mention his brother, or his father, but he thinks she gets the picture, from the way he can feel her gaze hot on his back.

“Sounds like a good idea,” she says cheerfully, and he laughs, his shoulder bumping hers as they walk down the counter to the cashier, and he thinks maybe she seems a little happier about the birthday party when they head back to the garage.


	15. simplicity

Of all the rangers, she finds it easiest to spend time with Ziggy alone. Nobody really understands it, except maybe Dillon, because he’s the same way – Ziggy talks enough for four people, and you never feel pressured to respond to his ramblings. She sits there and does her work while he practices shadow puppets or rants about his students and lets his voice wash over her.

He’s relaxing, in his own way. Flynn is too kind, always asking after her; Summer is the same way except with the added annoyance of always being near Dillon; Dillon is her _brother_ , which means she goes to him to talk, not to relax; Gem and Gemma are… Gem and Gemma. She thinks K is more likely to snap her violin bow at her than anything, and Scott – well, it’s complicated.

So, Ziggy it is. She takes over the couch in his teacher’s office at his school, sprawled out and looking at maps of the wasteland to pinpoint where they should head next while he grades papers at his desk and points out how amazing each of his sutdents is at whatever they’re studying today. She’s had him tuned out for half an hour when he says:

“And, I mean, it’s not like you and Scott are ever going to stop dancing around each other.”

Tenaya jerks, upsetting her maps as she sits up straight and stares at him. He doesn’t say anything, which implies he knows exactly what he’s said, but he doesn’t look at her waiting for a response either, just continues marking papers.

“…What did you say?” she finally asks, uncertain if she’d even heard him right. It is _Ziggy_ , after all.

He smirks, head bowed over an essay. “I _said_ , you and Scott are never gonna get over yourselves and just admit you like each other, are you?”

“ _Excuse_ me?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he says, finally looking up and closing his gradebook with a definitive _thump_. “You’re driving the rest of us crazy, you know that? He literally told you he loved you and you still haven’t – ”

“He was drunk,” she interrupts quickly.

Ziggy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, and I was there with him when he was drinking. Trust me, he’s in love with you. Get over it.”

She chokes. “He’s _not_. And listen – I don’t know where the rest of you get off getting involved in _my_ life, but it’s not your decision. If I want to be with him – ”

“But you do,” he says, looking over at her with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t you?”

Her words leave her for a minute. Ziggy hums and goes back to shuffling his papers into a neat pile. She watches him do it, her mind whirling – Scott – and the drunken phone call – and how he never brought it up again but – the way he looked at her sometimes – only when he thought she wasn’t looking…

“I didn’t hear a no,” Ziggy points out, and she jumps, looking up to find him standing over her with a half-smile on his face. “Look, I know it might seem annoying but – we all care about Scott, and we care about you, too. We want you guys to be happy, whether or not its with each other. But… you seem happy with him, right? It’s – it’s simple. It’s you two.”

The word _simple_ doesn’t feel like the best one to describe them, but he leaves her with it, closing the door to his office quietly so she’s left alone with her thoughts. The way he says it – _it’s you two_ – takes everything complicated about them and turns it to dust.

 Almost of its own accord, her hand pulls out her phone and navigates to her voicemail. It’s the only one she hasn’t deleted – _Scott Truman, :43_. It only took him 43 seconds to admit it, and she’s been thinking about it for weeks.

Carefully, she presses his number. It rings four times before he picks up.


	16. history

“I wanna know something,” she says, and he whirls to find her leaning against the doorway to his bedroom, as if she wasn’t supposed to be halfway out of the city to the wastelands by now.

“You ditched your road trip to ask me a question?” he asks skeptically. She steps closer, the door clicking shut behind her, and he is suddenly very aware of the fact that she – she is _here_ , in his _room_ , and they’re _alone_.

“Actually, Summer _made_ me ditch our road trip to ask you a question,” Tenaya says with a shrug, and he tries not to groan out loud. If Summer had a hand in this, that means – that means it’s about _them_. And he still hasn’t talked about _them_ , not to her, not to Tenaya, not to anyone. Not since – well, not since he found out she’d broken up with that boy she’d been seeing.

“Okay,” he says slowly, reaching over and pulling on a red shirt. “What’s your question?”

She crosses her arms, standing right in front of him, her gaze nothing but steely and determined, but he knows her well enough by now to catch the glimmer of nervousness beneath it. “I want to know when you fell in love with me.”

His brain stops working. “Wh—what?”

Tenaya closes her eyes for a minute. “I want to know,” she repeats carefully, “when you fell in love with me. You sent me that voicemail, and you haven’t denied it yet. Everyone says you are. I want to know how.”

“Oh, you – ” Scott chokes on his words for a minute. “You want to know _how_? You want me to just tell you everything about how I feel about – without even having any idea how _you_ feel – that’s not how it _works_ , Tenaya – ”

“You want to know how _I_ feel?” she demands, and then she grabs his shirt and yanks him in to kiss him, her mouth hot and soft and desperate on his. His nerves explode in fire and electricity, his mind going haywire as it tries to process her kiss – and then she’s pulling back, almost as fast as she pulled in.

“And that,” she adds, her voice breathless, and punches him in the gut, “is how I felt when you left that stupid voicemail and then didn’t talk to me in person for a _month_.”

Scott swallows, backing up until he hits the hard edge of his bed, trying not to double over from pain. She still has a good punch; he hasn’t been on the receiving end for a while. “Okay,” he sighs, looking over at her as she stands just a few feet away, her face clouded with anger and – and something else, he doesn’t know what. “I deserved that.”

Tenaya huffs, her defensive stance softening. “Yeah, well,” she begins, then pauses, looking at him sidelong, “it wasn’t entirely your fault, I guess. I didn’t really help much.”

He half-smiles, ducking his head. “I don’t know when,” he admits, and she frowns in confusion for a moment. “When I – when it happened. It’s been – it’s been almost two years, you know, since we beat Venjix. And we’ve been – we’ve been talking, and you’ve been around, and I – I don’t know. What kind of answer are you looking for?”

“I don’t know,” she echoes, shoving her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket, and shoots him a grin. “We’re not very good at this, are we?”

Scott breathes out a laugh. “Well, we’re no Summer and Dillon, that’s for sure.”

Tenaya rolls her eyes. “That wouldn’t be any fun, though,” she points out. “They’re kind of gross, anyway.”

“You just think that because he’s your brother,” he says with a grin.

She tilts her head. “And you don’t? Were you ever going to tell me about you and Summer?”

He inhales. “That – that is a lot of ancient history, Tenaya.”

“I want to know,” she says quietly, and he lets her sit down on his bed to listen.


	17. chance

She knows they never really had a chance of keeping it a secret, but having Gemma bounce into her bedroom – or rather, Scott’s guest bedroom – with Summer behind carrying, oh, god, a _make up kit_ is not number one on the list of ways she’d have preferred everybody find out.

“What the hell is that?” she asks warily, almost ready to jump into a fighting stance as Summer casually sets the kit on her dresser and Gemma heads over to her closet.

“We’re helping you get ready!” Gemma says enthusiastically, without a trace of how _weird_ this notion is in her voice.

“For your big date,” Summer continues, flashing her a smile as she holds up two nail polish bottles. “It’s tonight, right?”

Tenaya takes a deep breath to calm herself. “I need both of you to _stop moving_ ,” she says, gratified when they, at least, obey that much. “You are making way too big a deal about this. How did you even find out?”

“I have my ways,” Summer says brightly, winking at her. “Do you prefer pink or red nail polish?”

“Neither!” Tenaya says quickly. “We’re not doing this. It’s just dinner and it’s _Scott_ , I’m not going to go out there looking like a fucking _doll_ just for – ”

Gemma calmly takes her by the shoulders and sits her down on the bed, leaning over to whisper in her ear, “It’ll be less painful if you just go with it. Trust me, I know.”

Summer approaches with the red nail polish and Tenaya sighs deeply. Gemma is right – there’s no stopping Summer.

Later that night, Scott comes by her room and raises an eyebrow when she opens it, standing in a red-and-black dress (she’d talked Summer down from the blood red number) with her hair done up in curls and her nails painted the same shade as his shirt. She fidgets a little, but he only smiles.

“Summer?” he asks and she nods. “Yeah… she did it to Gemma, too. You look great.”

“I look like a goth Barbie,” she retorts, and he chuckles, offering her his hand. “ _You_ look nice. I’m assuming she didn’t attack you with make-up?”

“She wouldn’t dare,” Scott grins, twining his fingers with her as they walk down the hallway and to the front door. “Are you excited for tonight?”

He sounds almost nervous, so she stops him in the open doorway with the cool night breezes wafting past them, and says, “I just have one problem.”

His brow furrows. “What’s that?”

She leans up and presses her lips to his, balancing her hands on his shoulders to lift herself up to his height. He freezes for a second, probably remembering the last time they kissed, but when she doesn’t pull back to punch him, he gathers her up in his arms and kisses her back, his mouth warm as he slides his lips over her, easing hers open to deepen the kiss.

She runs a hand up his neck and tangles it in his hair, backing him up against the door frame with her other hand and willing her body to stop feeling like it’s on fire. His kiss is hot and sweet and gentle all at the same, and she never wants to stop.

Scott draws away first, his breath coming out in a quiet laugh. “Tenaya… that’s the opposite of a problem.”

She smiles brightly at him and runs a finger over his lips. “I really didn’t like this lip gloss,” she tells him, showing him the red gloss that’s come off from his lips to her hand. His eyes widen and then he laughs for real and ducks his head back down to kiss her again.

It takes them a while to get to their date.


	18. what if?

If his teammates think they’re being subtle, they’re not. He can _hear_ them talking just outside his room.

“What if they’re having sex in there?”

“Shut up, Flynn.”

“What if they already had sex and they’re lying there naked?”

“Shut _up_ , Ziggy.”

“What if – ”

“Would somebody just knock already?!”

Definitely his team. Scott heaves a sigh and gets out of bed to open the door before anyone builds up the courage to knock. All six of them are standing there, even Gem and Gemma, the _traitors_. Gem smiles apologetically at him and Gemma points at Ziggy, mouthing _‘his idea’_.

“Did you guys need something?” he asks, trying to sound more annoyed than he actually is. Summer, Flynn, Dillon, and Ziggy exchange identical looks of panic as Gemma tries not to laugh in the background.

“Uh, team bonding?” Flynn suggests. Scott raises his eyebrows at him, and he withers under his stare. “We’re… going on a picnic?” he tries again.

“We wanted to invite you,” Summer says calmly, taking over with ease. He turns the same stare on her, but it has less effect than it did on Flynn, damn her. “And… Tenaya. If you’ve seen her around.”

“Why would I have seen her around?” he asks nonchalantly. Summer rolls her eyes at him.

“Because… you’re dating her,” Ziggy says slowly. Scott looks at him and he swallows nervously. “Um… aren’t you?”

“Am I?” he retorts blankly. Behind Ziggy, Gem is working very hard to not double over from laughter. Tenaya, of course, chooses that moment to come out of his bathroom wearing only his shirt.

“Is something going on?” she asks, innocent as ever, as she dries her hair off with a towel. Scott sends her an appreciative glance and she grins at him. Dillon makes the most disgruntled face he’s ever seen and turns around and walks away without a word.

“I think you broke Dillon,” Gemma muses. Gem chokes on his laughter.

Scott says cheerfully, “They wanted to invite us for a picnic, _sweetheart_.”

Tenaya, who hates pet names even more than Dillon does, smiles. “Well, that sounds lovely, honey.” There’s a sound from the other room like Dillon is trying to smother himself with a pillow. “Will somebody please go check on my brother?”

Summer sighs. “We’re going to the park in half an hour,” she tells them pointedly before running off to go make sure her boyfriend is still alive.

Scott grins at the remaining four. “I don’t think he thought this whole pushing me to date his little sister thing through.”

“I don’t think any of us did,” Flynn agrees. “Congrats on the sex, I hope you used protection.”

Scott closes the door quickly before Tenaya can throw anything at him.


	19. denial

“This is stupid,” Tenaya mutters as he leads her through the ballroom, glowering at the twinkling chandeliers above them. “I look ridiculous. I _feel_ ridiculous. And this is completely unnecessary.”

“My father would disagree,” Scott says, spinning her around. She nearly trips on her heels and he pulls her back into his arms quickly before anyone notices. “Look, it’s only for a few hours. We’ll be back home before you know it.”

“But not before I have to talk _to your father_ ,” she hisses. “And his _friends_. From the _government._ In case you’ve forgotten, I am technically an enemy of the state.”

He rolls his eyes. “If you’re an enemy of the state, so is Dillon, and so is half of the government. Most of the city was infected by the Venjix virus, _remember_? Besides, he really wants to meet you.”

“Most of the city didn’t try to _destroy_ Corinth on a weekly basis for a year,” she retorts, and he sighs and stops dancing to cup her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “I just don’t – ”

“I know,” Scott says softly, and she sighs. “I know you don’t. But he’s not that bad, I promise. He’ll like you. _I_ like you, so he has to.” He punctuates the sentiment by angling his head down to kiss her, slow and sweet and just the way she likes it. Almost unconsciously, she stops swaying half-heartedly to the music, pushing herself up to deepen the kiss –

But somebody coughs behind them and he pulls away quickly. “Father,” he says carefully, smiling a bit sheepishly as they both turn to face Colonel Truman. “Uh, this is – ”

“Tenaya, yes, I’ve heard,” says Truman coolly, observing her with a careful eye. She resists the urge to smooth down her dress. “Pleasure to finally meet you. Scott’s told me so much about you.”

She glances at Scott, who has a look on his face like he obviously does not talk to his father all that much. “All good things, I hope?” she asks, smiling in the way Summer has taught her – even teeth, polite, collected. Perfect for the upper class.

“Aside from your… history,” Truman says slowly, “yes, all good things. You’re Dillon’s sister, correct?”

Tenaya bites back an annoyed response. “Yes,” she says, her tone clipped. “And I’ve heard great things about you, too,” she says, thinking back on the nights she stayed up late with Scott, before and after they started dating, talking about families and expectations and pressure and brothers who cast shadows too big to live under without withering.

Truman judges her for a long moment, and she can feel Scott’s fingers digging into her hip. It occurs to her that he’s just as nervous to introduce her to his father as she is. Finally, he steps back and nods and says, “I hope you two enjoy the party,” before heading off into a circle of rich men sipping wine in the center of the ballroom.

Scott exhales slowly. “He likes you,” he says, taking her hand and pulling her away from the dance floor to a more secluded corner. “He would have been way worse if he didn’t.”

“Are you sure?” she asks skeptically, finally giving in to the urge to adjust her dress. “He brought up my _history_ – ”

He shakes his head, a smile spreading over his lips, and draws her in close enough for her to feel his heartbeat pounding a mile a minute beneath his shirt. “He’s in denial that I actually have a girlfriend – and she’s amazing,” he promises her, leaning down to steal a kiss, which turns into two, which turns into several.

“You’re lying to make me feel better,” Tenaya accuses when they part, her fingers playing with his red tie.

“Do you really care if my dad likes you or not?” Scott asks, pressing a kiss to her cheek, then her jaw, then her neck. Tenaya pretends to consider it as his lips slide down her shoulder to the top of her chest, bared by her strapless gown.

“No, I only care if you like me,” she admits, and he grins at her, drawing his head back up to kiss her properly.

“One more hour,” he promises, the words soft against her lips, and she smiles. One more hour, she can do for him.


	20. competition

“This is ridiculous,” she declares, standing in his living room and staring at the path of rose petals leading to his bedroom. She turns to look at him and he smiles at her. “You realize you’re being _ridiculous_ , right?”

“I thought girls liked romance,” he shoots back, hopping off from where he’d been leaning against the kitchen counter to join her in the middle of the hallway. “Rose petals, champagne, sex – it’s straight out of a cheesy romcom, right?”

Tenaya shoves him, but she’s laughing. “Scott… we are _not_ some cheesy romcom. And I know what you’re doing.”

“Trying to seduce my girlfriend?” he asks, brushing kisses to her face to prove his point. She sends him a _look_.

“You and Dillon,” she says, stepping out of his grasp and pointing an accusing finger at him, “are having a _competition_.”

He blinks at her. “That – that is completely ridiculous,” but she’s already holding up her hand to count down.

“One, he threw Summer a super romantic picnic in the woods, and by woods I mean wastelands, and by super romantic, I mean half their food got eaten by ants, but he didn’t tell you that, did he?”

Scott frowns, cataloguing that away to torment Dillon with later. “No, he didn’t.”

Tenaya laughs and holds up another finger. “Two, you took me to a dive bar – that you rented out – so we could get drunk alone and have sex at a bar, which I really hope was clean, because I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“It was definitely clean,” he assures her. She rolls her eyes and adds a third finger.

“Three, Dillon took Summer to the movies and more or less scared everyone away so they could have the place to themselves. Minor sidenote, we are never going to that theatre again because they probably had sex in the seats.”

“Agreed,” he says quickly, making another mental note to get someone to clean the entire theatre.

“And fourth,” she says, dropping her hand to wave it at the rose petals. “This? Come _on_ , Scott. You guys don’t need to have a dick contest to prove you’re romantic. You _already have girlfriends_.”

Scott laughs, running his hands down her arms. “Okay, okay, point taken. It was just kind of fun trying to one-up him but you’re right. I couldn’t beat him, anyway, he and Summer have been dating longer, which means he has the trump card.”

Tenaya frowns even as she pulls his hands so she’s backed up against the couch. “What trump card?”

“I’m pretty sure he bought a ring the other day,” he admits, and her eyes widen. “He hasn’t said anything yet but – ”

“Oh, my _god_ , are you serious?” she demands, and he mourns the loss of a moment which was definitely about to lead to making out. “That’s amazing, and I’m totally gonna win the bet.”

He frowns, thinking of his own bet. “I still have two more months left for mine; he could always chicken out, you know.”

Tenaya smiles soothingly at him. “Don’t worry, I’ll share the winnings. Also, you can _totally_ one-up him with this.”

Scott blinks at her. “Are you… asking me to propose to you?”

“No,” she says, reaching up to take his face and kiss him so languidly, he almost forgets what their conversation is about. When she pulls back, she flashes him a wicked smile and says, “I’m asking you to propose to me _at their wedding_.”

Scott stares at her in amazement. “That… is brilliant. I’m so lucky to have you,” he says, leaning back in to kiss her again. “I love you,” he  murmurs into the kiss, and she smiles against his lips.

“I love you, too,” she laughs, and it takes him a moment of kissing her to realize it’s the first time she’s said it back.


End file.
